University Weekend

Stockton University hosted its annual family weekend from October 8th to October 11th, although many of the main events occurred on Saturday, October 10th. Saturday morning began with a parents’ breakfast at 10am (an atrociously early time for a Saturday, as college students believe) in the Campus Center. After the breakfast, families gathered in the court outside of K-wing to prepare for the parade. Students were given “boom whackers,” which, although they were intended to celebrate the parade floats, also functioned as dueling weapons for rival siblings and friends. Directly after the parade, which showcased floats from many of Stockton’s clubs and organizations, students and families were directed to parking lot 5, which is in front of Big Blue, for the carnival. At the carnival, anyone (as long as he or she met the height and weight requirements) could participate in any of the carnival activities. These activities included bounce houses, obstacle courses, a rock wall, and tables with representatives from different organizations at Stockton. One of the popular activities was an inflatable dueling platform, where friends and foes tried to knock their opponents off of a platform using an inflatable wand. Another activity that both students and their younger siblings enjoyed was the bungee trampoline. The participant was secured into a harness that was attached to bungee cords. Once ready, the participant was able to jump on the trampoline and, if they dared, perform backflips.   For the students and families that enjoy sports, there was a men’s soccer game on the field next to Big Blue. Since the weather was beautiful, many families also took nature walks around Lake Fred before saying goodbye to their students and heading home. The last activity of the day for students was the Osprey Ball, which included food, dancing, and a photo booth. Overall, University Weekend was a success in entertaining students and families and building Stockton’s community.

Get Involved Fair

On September 16th and 17th, Stockton hosted a Get Involved Fair for students. The event housed tables for many of Stockton’s clubs and organizations in the galleries of the A-J academic wings. The center of the event (a.k.a. the table with a directory for the locations of all the clubs and free soft pretzels) was located in the atrium between D-wing and C-wing. The Get Involved Fair’s main table also had a list of all of Stockton’s clubs and free goodies (like portable Frisbees and post-it notes) for those who visited. Once students found and located the club(s) they were looking for, they got involved!

Passers-by were awarded the chance to meet representatives from different clubs and join organizations that they found interesting (and don’t forget the chance to get free stuff!). The plethora of clubs and mingling students in the hallways made the academic wings seem much livelier than usual and gave students (or at least me) a good feeling about the community here at Stockton. I truly enjoyed seeing everyone chatting, sharing information, and becoming a community with each other. Of course, all the free pens, t-shirts, and bags were certainly a plus. If only there were more interesting clubs that didn’t all meet at 4:30 on Tuesdays…

Once students had completed a tour of the fair, they had the chance to fill out a survey on the event. Questions such as whether clubs were easy to find and what improvements could be made for next year helped the staff of the event to hear directly from students what they did or didn’t like about the fair. After completing the survey, students were given one last free prize: a stick-on pocket/phone stand for the back of a cell phone. Overall, the Get Involved Fair did its job; it allowed students to get involved in the many organizations and opportunities that Stockton has to offer.

 

The Amazing Race

On August 31st, during Stockton’s Freshmen Welcome Week, the Stockton Entertainment Team (SET) hosted a nighttime event called the Amazing Race Treasure Hunt. Upon arrival, teams of four signed in at a table and received a closed envelope with the team’s name on the outside. All the teams filtered into the Campus Center Event Room to await further instruction. Once everyone arrived, a SET member gave us the basic rules of the game: solve the riddles to find the next location, find the most locations within the hour-an-fifteen-minute time frame, and don’t run. The prizes at stake for the first place team were individual tickets to Six Flags Great Adventure and Hurricane Harbor, which were pretty enticing to my team, Team Yik Yak.

Immediately after the instructions were given, all the teams solved their first clue and walked speedily towards their first location. Since each team’s clue order was scrambled, no two teams were headed to the same locations in the same order. My team benefited from the fact that one of our members attended the Educational Opportunity Fund this summer; thus, she was able to guide us to many of the locations around campus that were involved in the Amazing Race. As time drew to a close, Team Yik Yak headed back to the Campus Center to arrive before the 9:45pm deadline. Originally, we thought solving 22 out of the 38 clues would have awarded us at least third place. Once we started talking to other teams, we realized we would have needed all 38 locations to win. The only reasonable conclusion as to how the winning team made it to all 38 locations: they ran.

Overall, the Amazing Race was a great Welcome Week event that allowed students to become more familiar with the campus in an entertaining way. It also helped students to bond with new people by exchanging clue answers and working together to achieve a common goal.